It is sometimes necessary or otherwise desirable to deliver a medication to a bodily passage, such as a sinus cavity. For example, when sinus cavities become infected or inflamed, delivering a medication to the affected area provides an approach to address the infection or inflammation. Conventional procedures include performing nasal rinses and using nebulizers to deliver a medication, such as therapeutic agents, into the nasal passages with hopes that some therapeutic agent will reach the infected or inflamed sinus cavity. These approaches, however, are minimally effective at delivering the medication to the sinus cavity because they rely on indirect delivery of the medication to the cavity.
While some methods of treatment achieve direct delivery of the medication to the cavity, these methods also have disadvantages. For example, a tube with an anchoring member at its distal end can be placed into the cavity to provide access for delivery. These devices and techniques, however, lack sufficient structure to achieve a uniform distribution of the medication throughout the cavity and placement of the tube must be done without the aid of a delivery system, which increases the complexity and time required to position the tube in the cavity. Also, the anchoring member occludes the sinus opening through which the tube has been deployed, which can block the natural outflow of material from the cavity.
A further alternative method of treatment involves the systemic administration of oral antibiotics and/or steroids. This approach, however, can have limited effectiveness and may lead to systemic consequences. For example, long-term use of corticosteroids has been associated with spasms of the large airways, fungus infection, decreased bone thickness, and/or growth impediments.
Therefore, a need exists for improved medical devices, methods and kits for delivering a medication to a bodily passage, such as a sinus cavity.